The Juicer Lives

Sometime during the 1990s I made a short-lived attempt to eat healthy. I bought a cheap juice extractor, used it for a while, and put it away. I don’t remember why I quit using it. Probably, it was more time and trouble than I thought it was worth. But then, back in those days I probably wasn’t suffering from metabolic syndrome: spare tire, overweight, A1C bumping against the upper limit, high triglycerides and low HDL, and prehypertension. Gosh, it sounds bad when I say them all at once like that.

Recently I watched a movie titled “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” about an Aussie businessman who was, well, “fat, sick, and nearly dead”, and who decided to come to America and drive from coast to coast while consuming only vegetable and fruit juice for 60 days. The film was inspiring and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to lose weight and/or get more healthy. Not that I wanted or needed to go on a juice fast for 60 days, or 30 days, or even 10 days. I just wanted to get better nourishment into my diet.

So …

I rummaged through the garage and found the old juicer. It’s a “Juice Factory” model, made in China (of course) by a company called Sweda. (There are several companies and organizations named “Sweda” around today, but I don’t think any of them sell juicers, and in fact, none of them may be the Sweda that made my Juice Factory.)

I took it apart and washed a thick layer of dust and debris off of it. And I started using it. I’ve used it for about a week, making “Mean Green” juice drinks (recipe from the movie). Today I was jamming a carrot through its mouth and it choked on it and died. Yeah, I killed it. I removed the top of the juicer and noted smoke wafting from it for about 5 minutes. I figured that was smoking-hot insulation on the motor windings. But motors are tough; I didn’t think I had killed the motor. I thought it more likely I had blown a fuse in the unit.

So, what to do now? Buy a new juicer? I disliked the thought of buying a new machine if the problem was a ten cent fuse. So I decided to see what I could do.

The juicer was easy to take apart: two screws held the bottom in place. Here’s a photo of the inside of the unit. As you can see, the inside is mostly air. There’s an on/off switch and a “microswitch” interlock that prevents operation when the top is not latched down.

Below is a close-up of the motor. The commutator and brush blocks are a tipoff that we’re looking at a series-wound motor, also called a universal motor because it can run on AC or DC power.

Looking down (below) you can see a fuse near the top of the photo (it’s not easy to see because it has a plastic sleeve over it and a clamp obscures part of it).

Below, I’ve unsoldered one end of the fuse and moved it away from the motor. An ohmmeter verifies the fuse is blown.

The dead fuse removed from the unit. 

The wire that went to the fuse now goes directly to the right brush block.

I reassembled the juicer and it runs fine. The Juice Factory lives!

You may be wondering, is it safe to do this – remove the fuse? The downside is next time I may burn out the motor instead of just a fuse. I have to be careful not to overload the juicer. If I can locate an appropriate fuse, I’ll replace it. Meanwhile, it’s not as if I’m going to turn on the juicer and leave the house. When it’s running, I’ll be right there with it. If anything untoward happens, I’ll be there to turn off power or pull the plug.

Meanwhile, I’ll have time to determine if this healthy-eating, veggie-and-fruit-juice thing is something I can really stick with. Because chicken wings and hot Buffalo sauce are calling my name.